Seek His Face Evermore: St. Augustine and the Quest for God, by Regis Martin

By Regis Martin, Crisis Magazine, Aug. 3, 2024

Regis Martin is Professor of Theology and Faculty Associate with the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He earned a licentiate and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. …

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles on St. Augustine, one of the greatest of Church Fathers, and how his writings still apply today.

Who among us is erudite enough to set about measuring the immensity of the achievement wrought by Augustine, whose depths clearly defy one’s best efforts to plumb?

It was during the pontificate of Paul VI, who has since been raised to the altar, that a gathering of scholars arrived in Rome for a conference on St. Augustine. Drawn by the timeless attractions of the Doctor of Grace, they came, as was fitting, to the center of Catholic Christendom, the Eternal City, for learned and spirited exchanges concerning the greatest of the Church Fathers from the first millennium.

In the course of their meetings, they were received in a private audience with the Holy Father, who possessed more than a passing acquaintance with the mind and heart of the sainted North African bishop. In fact, around that same time, he’d been in conversations with the writer and philosopher Jean Guitton (The Pope Speaks: Dialogues of Paul VI with Jean Guitton, 1968), with whom he shared his admiration for Augustine, noting, among other things, the fusion of style and substance in his writings. …

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